Sacred sites, severed heads and prophetic visions

Sacred Sites and the Dynamics of Identity

Local histories have long examined both the ties that bind communities together and the developments that make them distinct. As is evident in the term itself, "local" history takes as the most fundamental of these ties the connection of a group of people to a particular location. It is curious, therefore, that writers of local history have often taken this geographic connection for granted. Th...

The sacred commons: Conflicts and solutions of resource management in sacred natural sites

Aesthetic and Spiritual Ecosystem Services Provided by Urban Sacred Sites

The range and use of ecosystem services provided by urban sacred sites has hardly been considered in studies of urban ecology, sustainability and human wellbeing. This paper examines the perceived ecosystem services supplied by green spaces or gardens associated with places of religious worship and appreciated by worshippers in a mid-sized town in South Africa. A questionnaire with open, closed...

Prophetic Medicine

It is well known that certain Islamic Jurists and Scholars like Imam Bukari, Imam Muslim, and Imam Tirmizi, did exhaustive research to collect the sayings and traditions of our beloved Prophet PBUH. They then presented their collected works as 'Al Hadith' of the Prophet to the populace. Not only were these authenticated, as to their degree of authenticity, but each of the witnesses, or the chai...

Eugenics--sacred and profane.

t begins innocuously enough. A six-month-old baby, once thriving and cheerful, begins reacting differently to normal sounds such as clapping hands or closing doors. Her parents ice that her limbs twitch and her muscles are not developing properly. She has trouble swallowing and shows signs of mental retardation. What they can’t see is her compromised brain tissue, which began degenerating when ...